Today, the TUC releases an eve-of-the-World-Cup report, detailing the experiences of workers who spoke to our researcher earlier this month. The link to the report is below, but the foreword was written with the Playfair Qatar team, and is an important follow up to our last post 5 years ago. ______________________________________________________________________ In 2014, the TUC […]Read more…
Have We Won?
Qatar agrees to key campaign demands After years of campaigning, in which Playfair Qatar and its supporters played their part, Qatar appears to have done the right thing. In a potentially…Read more…
Workers stranded in diplomatic stand-off as Qatar and Saudi Arabia square up
As wealthy Gulf states face off over long simmering diplomatic differences, foreign workers in both countries are at risk of bearing the brunt of the dispute. An ongoing row in the Gulf over Qatar’s…Read more…
Alternative Facts
There’s a reason we don’t trust Qatar when they tell us we’re wrong about the prediction of 4,000 deaths before the 2022 World Cup. It’s because they can’t stop themselves hiding, misrepresenting or…Read more…
Playfair Qatar Update
Qatar remains under pressure for failing to take urgent and decisive action to prevent death, injury and forced labour affecting thousands of people travelling to the country to work on the…Read more…
Qatar fails to prove progress as international community keeps up threat of investigation
A huge push from the World Cup 2022 hosts has failed to convince the International Labour Organisation (ILO) that it has done enough to protect workers from serious abuse. In our campaign film, Foul…Read more…
Actions speak louder than laws
Qatar’s new labour laws will not end abuse, warns Amnesty, and FIFA must act to force real change. Hot on the heels of the deal between Qatar’s World Cup “Supreme Committee” and the international…Read more…
Unions make breakthrough in Qatar
Hard work from the global construction union federation BWI and its affiliates, including those in the UK, has made what may turn out to be a major breakthrough. Qatar’s “Supreme…Read more…
Foul Play
Last month, Playfair Qatar released our campaign video showing the unfairness and injustice at the heart of the push to get Qatar ready to host the 2022 World Cup. Of course, as much as we hope the…Read more…
FIFA REPLAYS ITS MISTAKES IN QATAR AS HUMAN COST OF THE 2022 WORLD CUP CLIMBS HIGHER
by Human Rights’ Watch‘s Minky Worden In this excellent piece published in Newsweek, Human Rights Watch’s Director of Global Initiatives explains why FIFA’s latest promise is…Read more…
This changes everything: Out of FIFA’s turmoil comes a game plan to comply with commitment to respect human rights
ITUC Secretary General Sharan Burrow writes in the Huffington Post When FIFA made a commitment to align itself with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, no one could imagine how…Read more…
British Companies accused of human rights abuse in Qatar
British companies and their Qatar-based subsidiaries are accused of confiscating passports, switching contracts, providing overcrowded accommodation and using kafala to trap workers in abusive…Read more…
Amnesty International report finds abuse still rife as Qatar & FIFA make excuses
Amnesty International has poured cold water on Qatar’s claims to be protecting workers on FIFA World Cup projects, exposing a litany of abuses faced by people refitting the Khalifa International…Read more…
Family still waiting to hear truth of Qatar metro worker’s death
Cooperation between groups of workers, international unions and embassies is slowly opening up Qatar to scrutiny, but all we’re learning is the same old bad news. When it comes to Qatar, and the fate…Read more…
Qatar World Cup dream is a nightmare for workers
Photo ITUC/Matilde Gattoni by Stephen Cavalier I had heard a lot about the exploitation of the migrant workers building Qatar’s World Cup dream. But nothing prepared me for the shock of seeing it…Read more…
New ITUC Report “Qatar: Profit and Loss” Workers Paying with Lives as Companies Extract Billions in Profit
A new report from the International Trade Union Confederation estimates that $15 billion profit will be made by companies working in Qatar on infrastructure for the controversial 2022 FIFA World Cup…Read more…
Slave-state Qatar faces ILO investigation
Today, the UN’s workplace agency, the tripartite International Labour Organisation (ILO) voted to send a high level mission to Qatar to make an assessment of the real conditions faced by migrant…Read more…
Qatar Exposed
We’ll get this up on its own page eventually, but here’s the ITUC’s excellent interactive film archive of recent Qatar investigations, Qatar Exposed. With Qatar restricting access…Read more…
Qatar wants us to check our facts – it’s time they let us
Next month Qatar has a chance to put its disputed record on workers’ rights to the test When Zaha Hadid, architect of Qatar’s under-construction Al Wakrah football stadium, lashed out at the BBC last…Read more…
Qatar’s worker reforms at end of rainbow disappear again
It’s slowly dawning on us, here at Playfair Qatar, that the Gulf state hasn’t really hired London’s Portland Communications to do its PR, but has in fact engaged Derren Brown. The latest…Read more…